Let me preface my question by saying that I just downloaded the trial version of Premiere Elements 11 today, so I'm VERY new to it. I've been able to muddle my way through most of what I want to do thus far by viewing MANY tutorials, but now I'm stuck.

Is there a way to:

1) add a thought bubble to a video (I managed to do this!)

2) fade out the text inside the bubble

3) replace the faded text with another video

4) expand the thought bubble video to full screen?

My whack at it: I used the PiP effect and plunked my video on top of the thought bubble, but the bubble is somewhat rounded and the PiP video is rectangular so it looks weird. I would prefer the video to play INSIDE the thought bubble, clipped to fit. I was also able to add a key frame to the PiP and expand it to 100%, but it doesn't fill the frame all the way. Not sure why.

I'm trying to portray a dog thinking a thought (that the audience can read in the thought bubble), then visualizing it (the PiP video), and then have that thought become center stage (full screen). If I could add some "dreamy" fade in effect too (dissolve? blur?), that would be great too.

I guess another option would be to have the thought bubble exapnd to full screen, then ripple into the thought video. But, I don't know how to do that either!!

Thought bubbles are, of course, part of the Graphics set that comes with Premiere Elements, Bill. So there's no need to create them.

The bigger challenge is placing a picture inside that bubble that's the shape of the bubble rather than square and with a soft edge. And I can't think of another way to do that than with a Track Matte. Can you?

No. For placing the Video "inside" the thought bubble, the Track Matte is the best way to do it.

OTOH, if one were to Scale the thought bubble up to fill the entire Frame, it would then be a simple matter of adding the new Video above that, and just do a Cross-Dissolve. I had envisioned the thought bubble Scaling up completely, so that only the white Fill was left, and the Video coming into that.

If the bubble is to appear near the screen's periphery, then it would be Track Matte, and the graphic could probably be used AS the Matte.

As for the included graphics, I more often animate my thought bubbles, so creating them in Photoshop, with the little "bubbles" on separate Layers, to animate those to "create" the full thought bubble, is my normal workflow. If the ones included work well, then no reason to build them, or search the Internet for more.